Chancellor Gordon Brown faces a parliamentary debate over claims he ignored warnings over the impact of changes he made to pension funds in his first budget.

The Conservatives said they would call for Brown to explain his decision in July 1997 to scrap tax relief on dividends paid into pension funds.

Pension experts say Brown?s tax credit cut was a contributory factor in the decline of Britain?s once-generous company final salary schemes.

Business leaders yesterday added to the pressure on Brown, expected to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister in the next few months, denying suggestions they had supported the move.

Treasury documents released recently under freedom of information laws showed the chancellor was warned the move would cost pension funds between 3 and 4 billion pounds a year and cut the value of their assets by 50 billion pounds.

?It is time Gordon Brown faced the music for the damage he?s done to British pensions,? said Conservative Treasury Spokesman George Osborne. ?We now know he was told all along about the devastating impact his tax would have on hard pressed savers.?

He said the debate would be held at the first opportunity after MPs return from their Easter break. Brown is expected to become Britain?s next Prime Minister when Tony Blair steps down in the next few months.

Stephen Yeo, a partner at investment consultancy Watson Wyatt, told BBC radio Brown?s tax change had not helped pension funds but said it was not the prime cause of their difficulties. ?To say it is the main cause of the decline of the final salary scheme is over-egging it,? Yeo said.

The three main factors, he said, were increasing pension payment guarantees, poorer investment returns and rising longevity, all of which had increased the cost of providing pensions.